Chapter 43: Seeing the Apothecary Again

Chapter Forty-Three
Seeing the Apothecary Again

Before leaving, Klein casually tossed a coin and asked whether today was unfavorable for going to Bravehearts Bar.

After receiving a negative answer, he looked around and said quietly to the air, “Is anyone watching me today?”

Several seconds of silence passed. Then Miss Bodyguard’s illusory, drifting voice suddenly came from behind him.

“No.”

Klein instinctively turned back, but still failed to discover Miss Bodyguard’s figure.

His attention swiftly shifted to the answer, and he could not help laughing inwardly.

So MI9 never put me on the list of suspects at all!

After confirming Rosago had never come looking for me, they completely cast me aside.

Should I feel honored, or should I feel insulted?

That makes sense. A detective busy finding cats and catching adulterers really cannot be connected to things like assassinating an ambassador of a nation and killing a Sequence 5 powerhouse…

Besides, MI9 monitored me more or less for a while. My panic, my helplessness, my desperate struggle to save myself—surely they saw all of that. Clearly, I could not cause any real harm to the ambassador…

Amid all sorts of thoughts, Klein put on his half-top silk hat, picked up his black silver-inlaid cane, and left 15 Minsk Street. He spent two soli on a rental carriage and arrived at Bravehearts Bar on Iron Gate Street in the Backlund Bridge area.

He entered with practiced familiarity, passed through the drinkers gathered around the boxing rings shouting encouragement, reached the bar counter, and knocked once on the wood.

“A mug of Southville beer.”

The bartender looked up at him and muttered, “Kaspars is in card room number three.”

Klein smiled, took out five one-penny copper coins, and pushed them across.

Then, carrying the wooden mug and drinking the Southville beer topped with fine white foam, he went around the two most crowded, liveliest, and sweatiest fighting platforms and knocked on the door of card room number three.

Kaspars was playing no-limit Texas Hold’em with a group of people. In front of him, banknotes were piled high, while golden coins dazzled the eyes.

Noticing Klein’s gaze, the black-market arms dealer with the enormous scar across his face twitched his red nose and casually said, “I do not like using chips. They make the whole thing feel unreal. It is still the texture of banknotes and the weight of coins that intoxicate people. Feels as good as screwing a woman!”

After muttering that sentence, Kaspars frowned slightly.

“What are you here for again?”

Klein did not answer directly. He pursed his lips toward the outside, indicating they should speak elsewhere.

“Damn it! I was going to clean them out this hand! Shit, I fold!” Kaspars threw the two cards in front of him into the middle, then limped to the doorway and said to Klein, “You had better have a good enough reason!”

After leaving the card room and reaching a corner, Klein lowered his voice.

“I want to know when the most recent gathering is. One like last time.”

Kaspars looked him over suspiciously. “Didn’t Maric already settle things with you?”

“This is not about hiring a bodyguard. I have developed a great interest in that sort of thing. Heh. You know what I mean,” Klein said, every word the truth.

Kaspars hesitated briefly before saying, “There is a gathering tonight. The organizer is still the same gentleman from last time. But you will need to wait more than half an hour. I will go over first and notify them. You displayed credibility last time, so I think there should be no problem.”

“No problem. I will pay your compensation,” Klein said, touching the notes in his pocket.

“This time, it is only one pound,” Kaspars said, wearing the air of someone immensely generous.

“Very worth it,” Klein said as both corners of his mouth rose at once.

After paying the fee, he found a seat, drank the malt-rich Southville beer, and watched the bouts on the boxing platform.

“I can knock both of them down at the same time…”

Klein swiftly reached that conclusion.

More than ten minutes later, Kaspars returned to the bar. He looked around and lowered his voice.

“They agreed.

“We will go over in half an hour. Storms above, I hope you have not forgotten that mask.”

Klein gave an affirmative reply.

He slowed his drinking, sipping mouthful by mouthful, and spent half an hour finishing the large five-hundred-milliliter mug of Southville beer.

It was still the same path as before, still the same house without light spilling through its windows. Klein put on the iron mask that covered only the upper half of his face and watched Kaspars knock rhythmically on the door.

Different from last time, the knocking pattern keeps changing…

Klein listened carefully for a while and saw the small wooden panel on the door open, revealing an eye peering out.

After a process no different from the last one, he put on a hooded robe and hid his entire face in shadow.

It was still that same sitting room, still the same candle wavering with dim, unstable light. Klein casually found a seat and sat down quietly.

But unlike before, this time he was no longer suppressed and tense. Instead, he leisurely looked around.

The cold wind blowing at the back of his neck let him confirm that Miss Bodyguard had also followed him inside, and that no one had discovered her.

As expected, there are no Sequence 5 powerhouses among the members of this gathering. There may not even be Sequence 6…

Klein thought this over.

After listening in for a while, he saw the round-faced Apothecary change his sitting posture, as though wanting to speak.

Sure enough, the Apothecary, whose chubby lower face was exposed, quickly raised his hand and said, “Black Snake seems to have died in the sewers…

“Those beasts are still rampaging.”

Black Snake is dead?

Hearing that news, Klein was rather stunned.

Black Snake was the man who had sold him the Listener relic, allowing him to “successfully” create Words of Filth. He had been suspected of being a member of the Aurora Order.

His strength should not have been low, yet he actually died during a simple sewer-beast clearing commission…

Klein frowned in puzzlement and suddenly thought of something.

When he had discovered Zeriel’s corpse, he had heard thud, thud, thud sounds from deeper in the sewer.

By the time he led Ian over, Zeriel’s corpse had already been partly gnawed by strange beasts.

That had been beneath Iron and Carbon Street in the East Borough, a considerable distance from the Backlund Bridge area. Klein had no idea whether there was a connection, and he had absolutely no impulse to verify it.

The news of Black Snake’s death quickly fermented inside the dim sitting room, drawing out a good deal of whispering and spreading a fear born of empathy.

The Apothecary clapped his hands.

“So what should I do?”

The whispers abruptly vanished. The room fell silent, as though frozen.

Because the Apothecary had previously advised him without fear of offending anyone, Klein thought for a moment and took the initiative to speak.

“If I were you, I think I would give up the remaining herbs and never go there again.”

“Why? They are about to mature, and those beasts hide deep in the sewers. They normally do not come out,” the Apothecary asked back somewhat hesitantly.

Klein deliberately rasped his voice.

“Black Snake likely had an organization behind him. His death will inevitably bring investigation. I imagine you would not be willing to deal with them.”

Possessing a Listener relic did not mean Black Snake was necessarily a member of the Aurora Order, but his calling the True Creator a great existence indirectly confirmed that point.

Moreover, for matters like this, it was better to believe the danger existed than to gamble on luck.

“Mm.”

The Apothecary gave a slight nod, seemingly already making up his mind.

Klein added a few more words.

“If I were you, I would also report this matter anonymously to the police.”

“What?”

Quite a few gathering members cried out in astonishment.

Klein’s tone did not change as he explained, “Since the beasts in the sewers can kill Black Snake, that means they are highly dangerous. And all of us live in Backlund. If some major disaster truly results from this, there is no guarantee that it will not involve us.

“So the best choice is to attract police attention and let the authorities handle the matter.

“We can enjoy a good outcome without taking risks. Is that not wonderful?”

No sooner had he finished than the old gentleman Eye of Wisdom applauded.

“A splendid idea! We are afraid of official Beyonders, but we can likewise make use of them. Do not think of handling everything yourselves.”

That is because I came from the official Beyonders. My way of thinking is naturally different from pure wild Beyonders like you…

Klein silently lampooned with a smile.

After speaking, he returned to an observer’s attitude, listening to others sell or seek items and materials, watching transaction after transaction either succeed or fail. Among them, there was nothing that interested him.

For the time being, he did not list the Beyonder materials he needed. He planned to observe this circle a few more times.

Time passed minute by minute. The old gentleman Eye of Wisdom began arranging for people to leave, one person every three minutes.

The last time, Klein had been the first to go and did not know what had followed. Only now did he notice that there were at least five exits here. Eye of Wisdom’s attendant would lead different people through different passages, doing everything possible to separate them and lengthen the intervals.

More than half an hour later, only three gathering members remained in the sitting room. Apart from the old gentleman Eye of Wisdom, the other two were Klein and the man suspected to be an Apothecary.

Eye of Wisdom looked at Klein and laughed in his aged voice.

“It seems your luck is not bad.”

He recognized me as the person who bought Black Snake’s ominous item last time…

Klein smiled. “Yes. I won the gamble.”

Hearing their exchange, the Apothecary’s eyes widened. He examined Klein for a long time before saying, “Do you have some other lucky mystical item? I had already treated you as a dead man.”

You really do speak directly…

Klein gave a tactful answer. “Perhaps I myself am lucky enough.”

In truth, he very much wanted to have a similar item himself.

Eye of Wisdom sighed. “Young man, do not always gamble on luck, especially in matters like this. Even if you have won many times before, as long as you lose once, you will never have a chance to turn things around.”

“I know. That is why I came to this gathering—to see whether I can buy useful items. Heh. I suppose I am now one of your kind.”

Klein said this as though casually.

“One of our kind?”

The Apothecary sighed dramatically.

“I should have listened to my teacher back then!”

Teacher… He himself is suspected to be an Apothecary… The Apothecary pathway is held by the Church of the Earth Mother and the Life School of Thought… The inheritance method of the Life School of Thought is master and disciple…

Klein’s heart stirred. He asked curiously, “Why do you say that?”

The Apothecary sighed. “My teacher wanted me to choose the path that makes people lucky enough, but in the end, I still became someone who mixes potions. As a result, I have spent two full years and still have not gathered the main ingredients for the next Sequence’s potion. Your luck makes me jealous.”

The path that makes people lucky enough… That sounds very much like the Monster Sequence pathway… He really is from the Life School of Thought…

Klein smiled.

“What was your reason for choosing?”

The Apothecary suddenly straightened his back.

“This was a man’s choice!

“After learning that I could make potions that enhance that particular ability, I chose this path without the slightest hesitation!”